Comments | lj_nifty: A New Client for Mac OS X 10.5+

aslj_client in lj_nifty

A New Client for Mac OS X 10.5+

Feb 09, 2009 01:03

asLJ is a new client for Macs running Leopard that easily handles multiple accounts on LiveJournal and other LJ-based sites and facilitates cross-posting across accounts. Release notes and download link are in aslj_client. The community for users is aslj_users.

Comments 13

ihatemyisp February 9 2009, 13:02:49 UTC

No offense, but I'm wary to run a client I can't see the source code to.

aslj_client February 10 2009, 05:19:52 UTC

No offense taken. I understand the concern over trusting a closed-source program with login credentials and with client-server communication.

I can tell you that all storage of login credentials is handled by the Mac OS X Keychain, via the Keychain Framework, that asLJ exclusively uses challenge-response authentication so your password isn't sent in cleartext, and that it only uses the XML-RPC API.

But as that probably won't change your mind, I'm sorry that asLJ won't be of use to you.

raven_moon February 9 2009, 14:16:22 UTC

IF this really does all that, I will personally bake a batch of cookies for the developer. I have been waiting for such an app *forever*! Not gonna bust out the mixer just yet though, but thanks for letting us know about this one.

aslj_client February 10 2009, 05:42:38 UTC

Thanks :)

What do you think so far?

shatterstripes February 9 2009, 17:17:42 UTC

Downloaded it and tried it out. I'm glad to FINALLY see a new client, but this isn't ready to replace XJournal for me yet.

Things I noticed:

The 'Security' area is super-cramped and illegible - I have a lot more than just four friends groups, with names longer than, what, six characters?

Userpic dropdown doesn't work. I'm assuming this is due to the alphaness.

'Past entries' is... difficult. Takes forever to show up; I suspect it's sucking the data down from LJ on the fly. It pins both CPUs for several seconds, whatever I'm doing! And the resulting interface is really awkward. Admittedly I'm really used to XJournal's column view interface to the history.

Why won't the window go away when I post? The only way to close it seems to be to quit. I can't have multiple post windows open, either.

Editing what I posted and hitting 'post' again creates a new entry rather than re-submitting it.

aslj_client February 10 2009, 05:31:26 UTC

Thanks for looking at asLJ ( ... )

shatterstripes February 10 2009, 16:15:57 UTC

Would it be better if the security were a pop-up menu (like the account chooser), with the list of groups below it, so the list were the full width of that minor column? (And what if the list of groups stretched vertically as the overall window size was increased?)

Very much yes. Trying to stretch out the window was one of the first things I did.

By "alphaness" I mean, well, it's an alpha version.

I've got a two-month-old Intel Macbook. And an LJ that stretches back to 2002 with ~3600 posts for an average of 45 posts per month. Are you hitting the server for all that data? XJournal keeps a local cache of all that stuff.

I've been using Macs since 2000; I'm definitely used to the 'window = document' model. Having a window that I can't close except by quitting the program seems really alien to me; I probably will be sticking to XJournal. Still, it's good to see some competition in this field again!

aslj_client February 10 2009, 21:47:13 UTC

The rearrangement of the security box will be in the next release ( ... )

Thread 5

Other things than the person mentioned foxfirefey February 9 2009, 19:36:59 UTC

Options XJournal has that this doesn't for posting (not that I used them all, but):

* Ability to enter mood and mood text (to use a mood not in the default list with an appropriate icon)
* Ability to enter location
* Preformatted checkbox
* Disable comments checkbox
* Don't email comments checkbox

Userpic dropdown worked for me.

I want the ability to set a default account that gets logged in when I open the program, right now I have to select it even though it's the only account I have.

Re: Other things than the person mentioned foxfirefey February 9 2009, 19:55:24 UTC

Oh yes and--very little, but I think instead of doing the full domain for services you know about, you could just do @LJ or @LiveJournal. This is especially relevant since you don't allow people to enter in general server info, so any server listed there is by default one you know about.

The ability to save and open posts is a must--I assume alpha is why it's not there, since the items are in the menu but grayed out!

Re: Other things than the person mentioned aslj_client February 10 2009, 05:41:52 UTC

Shortening the site names in the account selection menu is definitely on my to-do list, but requires some tinkering under the hood.

Saving/loading drafts is also on my to-do list, but it's farther from happening. The menu items are part of the default menu set in Interface Builder; I didn't delete them because I thought they were likely to be used later.

asLJ is alpha because it's only had 3 test users before this post and because it's not quite feature-complete. I need feedback, like what you've given me, to get it to beta.

Re: Other things than the person mentioned aslj_client February 10 2009, 05:38:21 UTC

Thanks for looking at asLJ.

"Ability to enter mood and mood text"--does this mean choosing a mood from a pop-up menu or drop-down box, but being able to enter text to override the labeling of that mood? (I didn't know LJ allowed that.)

I didn't know there was a "location" field. I'll put this on the list of things to add in a future release.

"Preformatted" will be an option in a future release.

Comment handling will also be added--I've been trying to figure out the best way to implement the variety of screening options available for comments.

Either setting a default account or opening to the last-used account is likely to be in the next release.